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Did you name your car?

Car naming is a phenomenon that seems to have been around for the last 100 years. We, as a nation, love our cars, with 40% of adults saying that they love their cars & couldn’t do without them, (Source: Family Finance Report, 26th June 2017) with this in mind, giving them an identity doesn’t seem so strange.

This bond seems to be ever prevalent with first time drivers, who undeniably link their car with their first taste of real freedom. It may also simply be a way of increased personalisation, there may have been 15,523 Toyotas sold in Ireland last year, for example, but only one of them is yours.

The most popular car name in Ireland in 2013 was Betsy, followed by Baby, do these names sound familiar? Interestingly, Betsy is the most common car name in America too. Why is this name so widespread?

We can also see that women are far more likely to assign their car a name than men. This could be reflective of the 42% of those who ‘love their cars and couldn’t do without them’ being women (Source: Family Finance Report, 26th June 2017).

We’ve had a think about the phenomenon, and reckon we’ve narrowed down some of the factors that could influence how a person chooses a name for their car:

First of all you have to decide the gender of your car, and then you need to consider the colour, because you wouldn’t necessarily call your jet black car Little Miss Sunshine.

Next, take into consideration how old your car is, Betsy may seem a bit mature for a three year-old car!

Now for the nitty gritty; what sort of personality does your car have? Is it grumpy and unpredictable, or is it happy and smooth running? Calling your car Grease Lightning if she struggles to hit 60kmph might not be the best choice.

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